Meanings of a Content Word

Nidhu Bhusan Das :

A content word may be used in two senses. The original sense associated with the word is its literal meaning. We can extend the meaning of a word. Such extension is called a metaphor. When we say ‘He has a donkey’ we use the word ‘donkey’ in its literal sense, but when we call a man a donkey (You are a donkey) we mean to say that the person is an idiot. Here the word donkey takes the metaphorical meaning. We may say, ‘He runs fast.’ Here the verb ‘run’ is used in literal sense, meaning ‘to move at a speed faster than a walk, but when we say ‘ Barak Obama runs for US Presidency the second time, we use the verb metaphorically meaning ‘contest’.

Concrete to Abstract: The meaning of a word may be transferred or extended from a concrete object to an abstract idea. When I say,’ I like bread’ I use the word ‘bread’ in the literal sense meaning .food’ ,but when I say ‘ He has to work from dawn to dusk to earn his bread’ we transfer the meaning from the concrete ( food ) to the abstract ( living ). We may say, ‘The building crumbled’ , we use the word ‘crumbled’ in the literal sense meaning ‘broke or broke into very small pieces’ , but when we say ‘His hope crumbled’ we transfer the meaning to suggest that his hopes came slowly to an end.

Living to non-Living and Vice-Versa : When we say ‘The right hand of the boy was injured’, we use the word ‘hand’ in the literal sense to mean a limb, but when we say ‘The minute hand of the clock in on 12’ we use the word in a metaphorical sense meaning an indicator. We may also use the word metaphorically to mean ‘role’ when we say ‘He has a hand in the affair.’